MARSHALL'S 

GOLD DISCOYEET 



A LECTURE 

(The Fourth op the Sixth Annuaj:- Course of Lick Lectures) 




JOHN S. HITXKLL 



9^.1 



IM 






DELIVERED BEFORE THE 




IN PIONEER HALL, SAN FRANCISCO, 

On THE 24th of January, 1893, the 45th Anniversary 
OF THE Discovery. 



_y^v 




SAN FRANCISCO, 

B. F. Stekett, Book akd Job Peintek, r32 Clay Steeet, 

1893. 



MARSHALL'S GOLDDISCOVERY. 



Mr. President, Fellow Pioneers, IvAdies and Gen- 
tlemen: 

To-day is the Forty-fifth anniversary of the greatest event ia 
the history of our State; the day when the gold deposits of the 
Sierra Nevada were discovered at Coloma by James W. Mar- 
shall. It was the 24th of January, 1848, that caused the great 
migrations of 1849, and of subsequent years, to California; 
that made possible the admission of our State into the Union 
on the 9th of September, 1850; that attracted settlers to all 
the American territories west of the Rocky Mountains; that 
indirectly built up San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, 
Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane City as they now are; 
that connected the Atlantic and the Pacific by numerous 
lines of railway across our continent and across the Isthmus 
of Panama; that gave the hint and the aid for the opening of 
the mines of Australasia as well as of Western America; and 
that threw more than $3,000,000,000 in precious metal into 
the commerce of the world. 

To our Society, and especially to its senior members, this is 
a day of great and happy significance. It caused us to come 
to California from distant parts of the world. It brought us 
to a land which seems to us the most attractive part of the 
earth. It enriched our lives with more instructive experiences 
than we should probably have gained elsewhere. It enabled 
us to participate directly or indirectly in the organization of 
the State government, and in the establishment of our local 
industries, many of them peculiar to our State and some of 



4 Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

them original with us. It developed California from rudeness, 
poverty, obscurity and semi- barbarism, into brilliant, complex 
and wealthy enlightenment, under our eyes, in the midst of 
our labors and as part ot our personal consciousness. Our 
identification of the growth of the man with the progress of 
the State is one of the chief causes of the strong State pride — 
many call it the excessive State pride — of the Pioneers. 

My tramp of 1200 miles across the plains — for I walked so 
far before I purchased a horse — ; my foolhardy venture with 
Ben Thorne, now Sheriflf of Calaveras County, in swimming 
the rapids of Snake river after dark for the purpose of buying 
a horse at an Indian camp; my loss of the return trail and of 
my wardrobe, with the exception of one garment which did 
not reach down to my knees; my profane wanderings in that 
classic attire for four hours through the sage-brush on. a cold 
and moonless night; my arrival at an emigrant camp, where 
the man on guard raised his rifle to shoot me as a prowling 
redskin, saying, when I claimed to be as white as he was, 
" White men don't go about dressed that way ; " my labors in 
the mines of what is now Shasta County; my participation in 
the Cottonwood Prospecting Expedition, of which Alexander 
Andrews, of Redding, and Abraham Cunningham, of Shingle- 
town, are, besides myself, the only surviving members; my 
success in finding diggings so rich, that we seriously discussed 
and even worried over the question, whether we should use 
pack-mules or ox-teams to take our gold to San Francisco; my 
disappointment when the extreme richness proved to be 
limited to a few spots where the prospects had been taken ; my 
trip down the Sacramento river in a whale boat in May, 1850; 
my experience during the Vigilance Committee excitement of 
1856; my attack of the early grape fever and my share in the 
company which planted the vinej^ards and laid out the town 
of Anaheim; my speculations in mines at Washoe, and in the 
lands of South San Francisco and Vallejo — speculations that 
were to, but did not, make me a millionaire; my admiration 
of my speculative genius when the market value of my prop- 
erty rose several thousand dollars a day for week after week; 
my malediction of my luck when the booms burst before I had 



Marshall's Gold Discovery. 5 

cleaned up; these, with many others of less note, make up an 
aggregate ot experiences, which in their variety and impress- 
iveness far exceed those which I imagine would have come to 
me if I had spent m y life east of the Rocky Mountains. I 
have good reason for asserting that my own experiences have 
been much less varied and impressive than those of many of 
mj fellow-pioneers. 

If success were to be measured by money only, perhaps I 
might say that a majority of the senior pioneers have been 
failures — not greater failures than the average of men, but 
much greater, when our unparalleled opportunities are con- 
sidered. Luckily a large fortune is not necessary to happiness; 
in many cases it does not protect men from bitter and life-long 
physical and mental suffering, nor from those base feelings 
and low habits which are incompatible with many of the 
nobler enjoj^ments. 

The chief success in life is the development of character and 
capacity, and this was a distinctive feature of pioneer times. 
In the early years after the gold discovery, California brought 
out all there was in men. It stimulated their strong points 
and exposed their weak ones. It opened their minds, it 
tested their courage, it awakened their ambition, it ripened 
their judgment, it rewarded their industry and made them 
feel that life was worth living, and had given them a fair share 
of its good things— thanks to the 24th of January, 1848. 

For the purpose of commemofating the day, I have been 
requested to tell the story of Marshall's Gold Discovery, and I 
trust you will be indulgent to me if I should repeat the sub- 
stance of what you have read or of what I have published. 
Besides desiring a lecture appropriate to the day, the officers 
of our Society wish to make a formal declaration that they 
accept this as the true date, and that they do not agree with 
those pioneers of California, who, in various cities east of the 
Rocky Mountains, celebrate the gold discovery by an annual 
dinner on the i8th or 19th of January. 

Let us recall the condition of California in the beginning of 
1848. It was a territory which had been conquered from 
Mexico 18 months previously. It had not been ceded to the 



6 Marshali^'s Gold Discovery. 

United States by treaty. A large majority of its white inhabi- 
tants were Mexicans in blood and sympathy. Most of their 
xwealth was in their cows. The Americans held possession 
only by their military and naval forces, except in San Fran- 
cisco, Sonoma, and in the Sacramento Valley, where they 
predominated in number among the white residents. 

Capt. Sutter, a native of Baden, of Swiss parentage, a 
graduate of a Military Academy of Berne, after serving as an 
officer in the Swiss Guards of Charles X. of France, until his 
dethronement in 1830, and having been naturalized in the 
United States, and afterwards in Mexico, owned a ranch on 
the eastern bank of the Sacramento river, and occupied an 
adobe fort to which he had given the name of New Helvetia. 
This establishment, several miles east of the point where 
Sacramento City afterwards grew up, was at the head of navi- 
gation for sailing vessels on the Sacramento river, and where 
the immigrants crossing the continent by land, first found a 
settlement of white men in California. As it was expected 
that American immigrants would be numerous and would 
nearly all come that way, New Helvetia was of much pros- 
pective importance, and the best place for a trading station in 
the interior of the territory-. 

Sutter had gone into the business of growing wheat. He 
had found that in favorable seasons the land would yield good 
crops. He had sold many tons for exportation, anl he 
depended upon it for most of his revenue. Knowing that he 
could make more from it if he could grind it into flour, early 
in 1847, he determined to construct a flour-mill, and also a 
saw-mill which should furnish the lumber for his buildings. 

Among the men working at New Helvetia was James W. 
Marshall, a native of New Jersey, a carpenter and wheel- 
wright by trade, a good mechanic, sober, honest and indus- 
trious. Marshall found the place for a saw- mill in the 
beautiful little valley of Coloma, where there was an abund- 
ance of good timber and excellent water power, 40 miles from 
Sacramento on the south fork of the American river. He and 
Sutter then went into partnership. Sutter was to furnish the 
capital and the laborers, Marshall was to superintend the con- 



Marshai^l's Gold Discovery. 7 

struction and to manage the mill after completion. About the 
ist of September, Marshall, with two white men, one white 
woman as cook, and ten Indians, went to Coloma and began 
^vork. At intervals Sutter sent additional laborers, untif in 
January, Marshall had a dozen white men, most ' of them 
Latter Day Saints, who, after crossing the plains in the 
Mormon battalion to aid in the conquest of California, had 
been mustered out. Among these Latter Day Saints 'were 
Henry W. Bigler and Azariah Smith, who kept journals which 
they have preserved, and who are both now living. 

The little community at Coloma was not perfectly peaceful. 
There was a woman in it ! She was the wife of Peter Weimer 
and was employed to cook for the white men. Besides her 
husband and her little boy, she perhaps had other favorites 
for whom she would keep back " the best part of the victuals," 
as Bigler says in his journal. She took oflfense because on 
one occasion some of the men did not come promptly to break- 
fast, and they were offended because she threatened to give 
them no breakfast at all. There are situations in life when to 
some people prose seems inadequate to the proper expression 
of their feelings. Such was now the case with Mr. Bigler, and 
to his private journal he confided the story of woman's cruelty 
in the following rhyme : 

" On Christmas day in bed she swore. 
That she would cook for us no more, 
Unless we'd come at the first call, 
For ' I am mistress of you all.' " 

On the 23rd of January, five of the men, including Bigler, 
moved into a cabin which they had built for themselves,''aud 
there they did their own cooking, and shared their dainties 
equally in spite of the tyranny of womankind in general, and 
of Mrs. Weimer in particular. 

Almost cut off from the rest of the world, this little company 
was astonished on the 24th of January, 1848, by Marshall's 
assertion that he had found gold, and Bigler noted the fact in 
his journal, the only record of it made on that day. Marshall 
showed them r,ome small particles of yellow metal which lie 



8 MarshalIv's Gold Discovery. 

had picked up on the rocky bed of the tail-race. The largest 
of these particles was little larger than a grain of wheat, but 
flat and irregular in shape. The first piece which he picked 
up weighed about the fortieth part of an ounce, and was not 
worth more than fifty cents. He hammered his metal on a 
stone and found it to be malleable; he heated it, and it did not 
melt readily nor become discolored in the fire. Some of his 
companions ridiculed the idea that he had found gold, and 
none attributed much value to his discovery, but he was confi- 
dent and enthusiastic. In the evening he turned the water 
into the race again, and in the morning turned it off", so that 
he could examine the bed, and he found more gold. This 
procedure he repeated for several days. His excitement in- 
duced him to take his samples to New Helvetia, where Sutter 
after testing them with acid and trying their specific gravity, 
decided that sure enough they were gold. 

Marshall, though delighted with the confirmation of his 
belief that he had discovered gold, did not neglect the work on 
his mill, nor did any of his laborers, though they gathered all 
the yellow metal that came in sight. None of them had 
ever seen placer mining, or had read how auriferous gravel 
was washed. At first they picked up the gold exposed in the 
bed of the race; then on Sundays they searched for it; after 
some weeks they tried to wash it out; in April they went into 
gold- washing as a business; in May, adventurers from the 
valleys began to come in; in June nearly all the Americans 
who had beea living about the Bay were in the mines, and 
before the end of the year gold- washing was the chief industry 
of the territory, and the gold fever was raging in the Eastern 
States. 

Those persons who knew Sutter and Marshall personally, 
generally gave the chief credit of the discovery to Sutter, but 
he did not make any claim to that honor. He was genial in 
manner, cordial on brief acquaintance, sociable with every- 
body, sympathetic and ready to help not only friends and 
acquaintances, but also strangers, even when he could not 
give aid without injustice to himself and his family. His 
extreme and noted liberality to many immigrants when they 



Marshall's Gold Discovery. 9 

arrived in want at New Helvetia after the hard trip across the 
continent, contributed to make him the best known and most 
popular Californian in the State, and the most famous one 
elsewhere. For years he was rich, and he always had wealthy 
friends. Indeed, nearly all the men who occupied prominent 
political positions in the State, between 184S and i860, were 
proud to be classed among his friends. They cherish his 
memory, and some of them to this day resent the idea that the 
main credit of the gold discovery should not be awarded to 
him. 

In 1870, Sutter had become so poor that he applied to the 
legislature for relief, and an Act was passed granting him a 
pension of $3000 a year for two years. The two succeeding 
legislatures continued the pension, each for two years, making 
six 3'ears, of which more than two elapsed after he had finally 
left the State — to which, however, he hoped to return. He 
ceased to be a resident of California in 1873, when he moved 
to lyititz, Pennsylvania, and devoted his attention to the 
prosecution of his claims at Washington. He had presented 
petitions to the United States land commission in California 
for the confirmation of three land grants. The first of these 
was for eleven square leagues, or 48,000 acres in New Hel- 
vetia, — including the site of Sacramento City, — under grant 
made by Gov. Alvarado in 1841. The second was for 22 
square leagues, or 96,000 acres, in Yuba and Sutter counties, 
granted in 1845 by Gov. Micheltorrena. The third was for 
four square leagues in Sacramento County, in trust for the 
Mokelumne Indians, under the guardianship of Sutter. The 
second and third of these claims were rejected by the Courts. 
The first was confirmed, and was extremely valuable, but 
Sutter did not manage well. He sold much of his land at a 
low price; he was cheated out of more; and he was compelled 
to incur great expense in defending his title to his property. 
Under the promise of Commodore Sloat, that the United 
States would protect every title to land held under color of 
right, Sutter was entitled to the confirmation of his 22 league 
ranch; a grant of unquestioned genuineness given in payment 
for important services to the Mexican government, and it was 



lo Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

•only a moderate payment. Besides demanding indemnity for 
the ranch of which he had been deprived, he solicited compen- 
sation for the supplies which he had furnished to indigent 
immigrants, and to officers and men in the United States arm}^ 
and navy. But Congress did nothing for him; he attended 
session after session in vain. On the iSth of June, 1880, at 
the age of 77 years, he died in Washington, and his grave is in 
Lititz, 20 miles south of Fredericksburg, where was born the 
founder of several notable, educational and philanthropic in- 
stitutions of California, and the benefactor of our Society — 
James Lick. 

Marshall was relatively an obscure man. He had neither 
family, wealth, nor rich men among his intimate friends. He 
was rude in manner, careless in his dress, and unsociable in 
his habits. Though not dissipated he was thriftless. The 
greater wealth and honor secured by others provoked his re- 
sentment. He became querulous and morose. He imagined 
that neighbors who wished to aid him were trying to defraud 
him. He repelled kindly attentions ; he became extremely 
suspicious, and often failed to discriminate between suspicion 
and fact. Always cranky, in his last years his crankiness ap- 
proached, if it did not reach, mental unsoundness. 

Before the summer of 1849 his saw-mill had gone to ruin, 
and he had devoted himself to the business of gold digging. 
He never found or owned a claim of great productiveness, and 
if he accumulated money he did not keep it long or invest it 
in anything that yielded a regular income. 

In 1870 his friends determined to solicit the legislature to 
pension him as it had previously pensioned Sutter; and for the 
purpose of influencing public opinion in his favor, his bio- 
graphy, well but briefly written by George F. Parsons, was 
published. 

The legislature, at its next session, gave him $200 a month 
for two years, and two succeeding legislatures continued the 
pension, reducing it to $100 a month, so that in six years he 
received $9,800 in all, as compared with $18,000 given during 
an equal period to Sutter. The last seven years of Marshall's 
life were spent in extreme poverty, and on the loth of August, 



Marshai^l's Gold Discovery. ii 

1885, he died at the age of 73, at Kelsey, not far from Coloma. 
His grave on a hill overlooking the little valley in which he 
•discov^ered the gold, is marked by a bronze monument erected 
by the Native Sons of the Golden West. 

It would be incorrect to say that Marshall was the first per- 
son to find gold in California. In 1839 auriferous gravel at- 
tracted attention in San Francisquito canyon about fifty miles 
•distant, and in direction nearly north from the city of Los 
Angeles. This placer gave employment to a few Mexicans 
during the wet season and produced several hundred dollars 
annually until it was abandoned for the richer deposits to the 
northward. It did not contribute to the discovery or develop- 
ment of the gold mines of the Sierra Nevada. 

Having told how the gold was found at Coloma, I will now 
till how the correct date of the discovery was brought to pub- 
lic attention. No inquiry was made on the subject until 
after a lapse of eight years. On the 9th of February, 
1856, mention of a day — and the first printed mention known 
to me — appeared in the California Chronicle in a letter 
signed but not written, by Marshall ; who in it said that 
he found the gold on the 19th of January, 1848. A second 
statement over his signature, but written at his dictation 
by J. M, Hutchings, a member of our society, was printed 
in Hutching's Magazine of November, 1857. There Mar- 
shall said he found the gold on the i8th, 19th or 20th of 
January, he could not be certain which day. He made a third 
statement in his biography — written from full notes of his con- 
versation by G. F. Parsons — and then he again fixed the 19th 
as the day, and added that four days after the discovery he 
went with his gold to show it to Sutter. Nowhere did he 
mention any written record made by himself, or by any other 
person for him in reference to the discovery at or about the 
time of its occurrence. His only letter printed from his own 
handwriting — so far as I know — is in Hutching's Magazine of 
November, 1857, a brief and surly refusal to furnish his photo- 
graph for the engraver, and with a foolish complaint against 
the government for not paying him for his accidental dis- 



12 Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

covery. For thirty years there was no critical discussion of 
Marshall's date. The Californians generally accepted the 19th 
as the day, but did not celebrate it. Some Societies of Pioneers 
of California in eastern cities have an annual dinner on the 
1 8th. 

The committee of our Society in charge of the annual cele- 
bration of the 9th of September, 1885, requested me to deliver 
an address on the discovery of gold, to which public attention 
had been called anew by the recent death of Marshall. In 
that address I mentioned the 19th of January as the date of 
the discovery, and nobody at that time questioned the correct- 
ness of my statement. Having heard that Henry W. Bigler 
was living, I sent a copy of my address to him, with a request 
for correction of any errors. He replied that the date did not 
agree with his diary. Further correspondence followed; he 
sent me extracts from his diary, and referred me to Azariah 
Smith, who also sent me extracts from his diary. From John 
Bidwell I received Sutter's journal, and all of these documents 
were placed in the archives of our Society, where they now 
are. There also is the entire sheet from Bigler's journal, con- 
taining his original entry on the 24th of January, 1848, men- 
tioning the fact that " this day some kind of mettle was found 
in the tail-race that looks like goald." The journal of Sutter 
under date of January 28th, says : " Mr. Marshall arrived from 
the mountains on very important business." This agrees with 
Marshall's statement that four days after the discovery, he 
went to New Helvetia to show his samples to Sutter. It 
agrees also with Smith's journal, which in an entry of January 
30th — his entries were made usually on Sunday — said gold had 
been discovered in the previous week. There is only one 
theory upon which the correctness of Bigler's date can be denied, 
and that is that his diary was not written at the time of the 
events recorded but was made up afterwards. This supposi- 
tion, however, would find no favor with any intelligent critic 
who has examined Bigler's diary, and there seen the internal 
evidences of the observant, methodical and truthful character 
of its author or compared it with Sutter's diary and followed 



Marshall's Gold Discovery. 



13 




^^ 



^ 



,\ 



^ 




Marshai^Iv's Gold Discovery. 15 

out the confirmations whicli the three diaries give to one 
another. 

We not only know that contemporaneous documentary evid- 
ence is more reliable than the unassisted memory in reference 
to events that occurred in distant years, but we also know that 
Marshall's memory was less trustworthy than that of the aver- 
age witness, and that it led him into many mistakes and con- 
tradictions. Upon this latter point overwhelming proofs could 
be produced if they were needed, but the case is complete 
without them. And here I may say incidentally that the three 
large parties of Mormons who came to California more than 
forty years ago, all left creditable records in our State. This 
remark applies to the Brooklyn Expedition, which came by 
sea and settled in San Francisco in 1846 ; to the Mormon Bat- 
talion, which came overland by the southern route and garri- 
soned the southern part of the State in 1847; and to the colony 
which came from Salt I^ake in 1851 and settled at San Bernar- 
dino where they remained seven years. The names of Henry 
"W. Bigler, the recorder of the gold discovery, of John M. 
Horner, a leader in pioneer agriculture, and of Samuel Bran- 
nan, publisher of San Francisco's first newswaper, her first 
capitalist, a public spirited citizen, and President of our Society, 
are inseparably and honorably connected with our local history. 

It may be said truly in one sense that the precise date of the 
gold discovery is a matter of no importance, and yet in another 
sense it is important. The human mind is so constituted that 
it prizes the knowledge of historical events with the incidents 
of time, place and circumstance, as necessary to give precision 
and completeness to our conceptions. Dates of the chief facts 
in our lives, in the growth of our city, of our State, and of our 
Union, are matters that deserve careful investigation, preser- 
vation and remembrance at the occurrence of their anniver- 
saries. They are akin to the symbols which we cherish. The 
spirit of the Declaration of Independence is fully contained in 
the printed copies of the document, and is explained in our 
books, and yet no American citizen would consent to sell the 
original manuscript for a million dollars to any foreign museum. 
The stars and stripes even when printed on cheap and dirty 



i6 Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

linen, may be displayed and treated before us in such a man- 
ner as to arouse our enthusiasm or fill us with indignation. 

To many persons here present, the questions may have oc- 
curred : " Why is it that this Society and similar societies in 
the State, the associations of the Native Sons, and the people 
of California have never celebrated this most important day in 
its history ? Why is it that the only State anniversary which 
they observe is the less important 9th of September?" 

These questions are pertinent and I will answer them. At 
the time of Marshall's discover}^ the men at Coloma did not 
appreciate its importance. Most of them left California within 
a few months and never returned for the purpose of residence. 
The two who had kept journals made their homes in small 
towns of Utah and were unknown by name to the leading 
citizens of our State. Only one of them made a written note 
of the event on the day nf its occurrence, and his record was 
not published until after a lapse of thirty years. Before 1856 
nobody inquired about the date or circumstances of the dis- 
covery. When Marshall made statements that the gold was 
found on the iSth, 19th or 20th of January, and that four days 
afterwards he took samples to Sutter, neither Sutter or anj'- 
other person who knew that he kept a journal thought of ex- 
amining it for the purpose of finding whether it would fur- 
nish any information. Marshall did not exert himself to ob- 
tain public observance of the anniversary, and on account of 
his rudeness his acquaintances were not disposed to make much 
effort to exalt him or anything that was his. Now let us look 
at the rival and more successful daj^, the 9th of September. 
In the year 1849 California had attracted nearly 100,000 men, 
exclusive of women and children. It had a productive capacity 
equal to that of a State with 500,000 inhabitants. The 
monthly product of its industry was equal in value to that of 
any other community with 2,000,000 inhabitants. By custom, 
the number of its people then entitled it to recognition as a 
State ; but its application for admission was resisted and de- 
layed under objections for which it was not responsible and 
which might lead to its exclusion for years. The great ambi- 
tion of every American territory is to reach statehood, and in 



Marshall's Gold Discovery. 17 

no other territory was this ambition so potent as in California, 
nor in any other territory was the delay so keenly resented, or 
was the news of admission received with such demonstrations 
of gratification. The steamer Oregon which entered our har- 
bor on the 1 8th of October, 1850, bringing the news, with her 
masts and rigging covered with flags, and with the continuous 
firing of cannon as the preconcerted signal to inform the people 
before the steamer arrived at the wharf, that California was a 
State, filled San Francisco with excitement, led to the imme- 
diate cessation of nearly all business and converted the re- 
mainder of the day into a time of universal rejoicing. Cannon 
were fired at short intervals until sunset, and the evening was 
brilliant with rockets, with bonfires on the hills, and with the 
illumination of the houses. Eleven days later, on the 29th of 
October, there was a formal celebration, with a decoration of 
the city, a procession, an oration by Judge Bennett of the 
Supreme Court, and in the evening a grand ball. 

It was for the purpose of participating in this celebration 
that the first meeting of the Pioneers of California was called, 
and our Society grew out of that meeting. To the Pioneers 
who then met, as to all the Americans in the State, the 9th of 
September seemed to be the great day of California, the one 
State day to which they had looked forward with hope, the 
one State day upon which they expected to look back with 
satisfaction. They declared that it ought to be celebrated 
for ever; they did their utmost to give it prominence, and sub- 
sequent national troubles increased their affection for it. 

We are creatures of habit. We do what we have seen 
others do. Most of us are Republicans or Democrats, Protes- 
tants or Catholics, because our fathers were. It is the excep- 
tional man who asks why things are done in the conventional 
way, and makes experiments to find a better method. Be- 
cause forty years ago the Californians generally did not know 
the day, nor even the month, of the gold discovery, and 
because the great day of local interest within the range of 
their experience was the 9th of September, 1850, therefore 
they celebrated it as the chief holiday of the State, and 
because they did, we have continued to do so. However, it is 



1 8 Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

possible that the time will come when the anniversary of 
Marshall's discovery will take a place among the days con- 
sidered worthy of commemoration by the people of California. 



AUTHORITIES. 



One sheet from the diary of Henry W. Bigler, containing 
the original record of Marshall's gold discovery, written on the 
24th of January, 1848, and the only known written mention of 
it made on that day, in the archives of the S ^ciety of California 
Pioneers. 

Extracts from the diary of H. W. Bigler, revised by J. S. 
Hittell in the Overland Magazine, September, 1887. 

Extracts from the diary of Azariah Smith, re^nsed by J. S. 
Hittell, in the Overland Magazine, February, 1888. 

Journal of John A. Sutter. Original manuscript in the 
archives of the Society of California Pioneers. 

A collection of letters in original manuscript by John Bid- 
well, H. \V. Bigler, Azariah Smith, Edward C. Kemble and 
J. M. Hutchings, in reference to the gold discovery, in the 
archives of the Society of California Pioneers. 

Letter of Jame-^ W. Marshall in the California Chronicle of 
February gth, 1856. This letter was addressed to C. E. 
Pickett, and before publication was seen by J. S. Hittell, 
whose recollection is that the letter was not in Marshall's 
handwriting and had been written for him, but had his signa- 
ture. 

Letter of J. W. Marshall in Hutching's Magazine. Vol II., 
page 192. 

Letter of J. S. Hittell in San Francisco Bulletin of January 
22nd, 1886. First publication of correct date. 

Life of James W. Marshall, by George F. Parsons, Sacra- 
mento, 1870. 

Address before the Society of California Pioneers at their 
annual celebration, on the 9th of September, 1885. by J, S. 
Hittell. 

Article by J. S. Hittell on Gold Discovery in the Century 
Magazine, February, 1891. 

Letter of H. W. Bigler in S. F. Bulletin, January 2nd, 1871, 
about the discovery, without mention of the date. 



Marshall's Gold Discovery. 19 

Interview with Mrs. Weiraer in the S. F. Bulletin of De- 
cember igth, 1874. Her statements conflict on man}" points 
with those of Bigler and Marshall. 



NOTES. 



As to Mrs. Weimer's piece of gold, which is worth about 
$5 and is represented to be the first piece picked up by Mar- 
shall, see the California Chronicle, February 9, 1856, and 
Hutching's Magazine, Vol. II., page 196, also Mrs. Weimer's 
interview in S. F. Bulletin, December 19th, 1874. 

The Museum of the Society of California Pioneers has the 
iron crank of the Coloma saw-mill. This crank was forged at 
Sutter's Fort on the 7th and 8th of January, 1848, by Levi 
Fifield, and was presented to the Pioneer Society by Marshall. 



RESOLUTIONS 

OF THE 

Society of California Pioneers. 



At the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors 
of the Society of California Pioneers held February ist, 1S93, 
Director Chever offered the following resolutions and asked 
their adoption. 

"Resolved, That a vote of thanks be given to our Member, 
John S. Hittell, for his interesting and instructive lecture on 
' Marshall's Gold Discovery,' given at Pioneer Hall, San 
Francisco, on the 24th of January, 1893, ^^^ that we fully in- 
dorse his conclusions that the discovery of gold by Marshall 
was made on the 24th day of January, 1848. The investiga- 
tion of this matter by Mr. Hittell has been thorough, and his 
proofs, comprising Bigler's diary kept at the saw-mill at the 
time when gold was first found there, and Sutter's journal, 



20 Marshall's Gold Discovery. 

kept at Sutter's Fort, which records the important news 
brought by Marshall, fully confirms Marshall's statement, that 
four days after gold was discovered he took some of it to Sut- 
ter's Fort to be tested. Regarding this discovery of gold as an 
important historical event, be it 

" Resolved : That Mr. Hittell be requested to place his 
manuscript in the archives of this Society for preservation 
with the original papers of Sutter and Bigler relating to the 
discovery of gold ; and that 2,000 copies of John S. Hittell's 
lecture be printed for distribution." 

On being duly .=:econded the resolutions were adopted. 

At the regular meeting of the Society of California Pioneers 
held February 6th, 1S93, Mr. E. K. Chever ofiered the follow- 
ing resolutions and asked their adoption ; 

"Resolved, That the historical evidences prove conclusively 
that the discovery of the gold deposits of the Sierra Nevada was 
made by James W. Marshall on the 24th day of January, 1848. 

' ' Resolved, That as the cause of the large immigration of 
1849 and of subsequent years, that day is second in importance 
to no other in the history of California. 

"Resolved, That in every year hereafter, the 24th day of 
January should be commemorated b}" our Society as one of the 
chief anniversaries of the State." 

On being duly seconded the resolutions were adopted unani- 
mously. 



e>v^^^/V3 



MARSHALL'S 

GOLD DISCOYERT 



A LECTURE 

(The Fourth of the Sixth Annual Course of Lick Lectures) 

JOHN S. HITTELL 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 











IN PIONEER HALL, SAN FRANCISCO, 

On THE 24th of January, 1893, the 45th Anniversary 
OF the Discovery. 



_y^v. 




SAN FEANCISCO, 

B. F. Sterett, Book and Job Printeb, 532 Clay Stuket, 
]893. 



-^^,-..^-.-^^^ ^3^ 



